Entrepreneurship development through rural bio-resource complex with adoption of integrated farming with mushroom, aquaculture, organic farming and value addition in North Bengal

The project was based on the management of the rich bio-resources of North Bengal region and their sustainable use through biotechnological intervention and development of innovative technologies for socio-economic growth and upliftment of the rural populations in this state.

Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2020.911.213

Entrepreneurship Development through Rural Bio-Resource Complex with Adoption of Integrated Farming with Mushroom, Aquaculture, Organic Farming and Value Addition in North Bengal Region of West Bengal

A K Chowdhury 1* , P M Bhattacharya 1 , A Roy 1 , S Bandyopadhayay 1 ,

B N Chakraborty 2 , Usha Chakraborty 2 and A S Ninawe 3

1

Department of Plant, Pathology, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari,

Coochbehar, West Bengal, India

2

Department of Botany, University of North Bengal, West Bengal, India

3

Department of Biotechnology, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, India

*Corresponding author

A B S T R A C T

Introduction

Global emphasis is on organic cultivation is

being promoted for adoption of organic

farming and to provide an alternative solution

to chemical farming Government of India published report in 2015, stated that the domestic organic food market would touch

ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 11 (2020)

Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com

Indian farming has been suffering due to indiscriminate application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and due to lack of farm based integrated farming based interventions Further, the monocropping pattern also one of the major factors that have contributed for disinterest and apathy among farmers The indiscriminate increase in cost of production, lack of assured market, price fluctuations and fragmentation of land holdings, timely non availability of critical inputs and also decline in soil productivity due to lack of science and technology inputs in farming system are the serious concerns which affects farmers’ economy This has resulted in loss of soil fertility, productivity of crops as well as hazards to human health According to the feedback from several quarters, farmers in general and farm youth in particular, are losing confidence in farming More than 40 per cent of farming families want to leave farming in India In a progressive state like Punjab also where the farmers are relatively well assured with resources compared to majority of other states in the country farmers are losing their confidence in farming Therefore, it is difficult to imagine the mindset of farmers in other parts

of the country The situation is more or less same in many developing as well as few developed countries Therefore, a network project was undertaken with the support of the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India on establishment of rural bio-resource complex in North Bengal implemented by University of North Bengal and Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya in seven districts viz, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda in West Bengal State By understanding the importance of organic farming and introduction of high value crops, interventions on mushroom cultivation, aquaculture and solid waste management were taken up in the districts benefitting more than 2000 farmers including Self Help Groups The details have been highlighted in the paper

K e y w o r d s

Rural Bio-resource

Complex, Capacity

development,

Income generation,

Livelihood

Accepted:

15 October 2020

Available Online:

10 November 2020

Article Info

$1.36 billion by 2020 and the market is

growing at 25-30% (Kavitha and

Krishnaveni, 2016) By understanding the

importance of organic farming and

introduction of high value crops, interventions

on mushroom cultivation, aquaculture and

solid waste management were taken up in

seven districts of Northern parts of West

Bengal

The project was implemented in seven

districts of West Bengal namely; Darjeeling,

Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Uttar

Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda The

criteria for selection of districts was

dominance of backward communities due to

absence of any industry and limited livelihood

options, dependence only on traditional

agriculture To address the region based issue,

a project on establishment of rural

bio-resource complex in North Bengal was

initiated in the region during 2011-2016

supported by Department of Biotechnology,

Government of India The project was based

on the management of the rich bio-resources

of North Bengal region and their sustainable

use through biotechnological intervention and

development of innovative technologies for

socio-economic growth and upliftment of the

rural populations in this state

Materials and Methods

Demographically, North Bengal Zone is

comparatively backward in terms of

education, agriculture development and lack

of heavy industries The livelihood of the

people depends on age-old agriculture

practices but immense scope exist to improve

the livelihood due presence of rich

bio-resources The Northern parts of West Bengal

fall in between 24040’28”-27013’N and

87045’50”- 89054’35”E

The project implementation sites are located

in between different countries like

Bangladesh in the East, Nepal and Bhutan in the North The presence of Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya (UBKV) and University of North Bengal (NBU) has made impact in the community in this zone These two co-ordinating and implementing agencies have created effective linkages with local research organizations, development departments, commodity boards and the financial institution

At both the implementation sites demonstration and training activities were conducted The interventions on mushroom cultivation and processing centre at village level, dissemination of techniques for sustainable solid waste management through vermicomposting, use of bio-fertilizers and bio-control agents, establishment of aquaculture units in adapted villages for quality seed production and economically important fishes and ultimately human resource development were taken up

These activities were taken up to benefit farmers, rural women and unemployed youths

in seven district of North Bengal for sustainable utilization of biological resources through awareness and popularization activities project implementation area of

North Bengal regions

While taking up the project for implementation by NBU and UBKV in collaboration with local KVKs/NGOs details

on population data on income and living standard of the families were collected The baseline information collected were analyzed and documented for the entire families in all the seven districts in North Bengal region and the community participation were selected mostly agrarian based and socio-economically weaker The packages of interventions selected were introduced on organic farming with enrichment of vermicomposting with bio-fertilizers/bio-control

agents/bio-pesticides (Rajasekhar et al., 2012) mushroom

cultivation Emphasis was also given on year

long seasonal production of different varieties

and integrated fish farming with prawn

culture and cultivation of local fish verities

Cultivation)

In North Bengal mushroom cultivation is very

popular and highly adopted intervention at the

community level due to favourable

environmental conditions, climate and

temperature for cultivation of different types

of mushrooms (Button mushroom, Oyster

mushroom, Milky mushroom etc.) It also

produces round the year and an important

food item concerning human health, nutrition

and disease prevention

commonly known as button mushroom is

mainly cultivated on the hills as it requires

low temperature for its growth; however with

the advent of modern cultivation technology it

is now possible to cultivate under controlled

conditions throughout the year In North

Bengal, formerly its production was limited in

winter season, but now it is cultivated

throughout the year adopting different levels

of technology developed by the project

Demand of white button mushroom is now

increasing in North Bengal and farmers are

now getting a very high market price

Oyster mushroom: Pleurotus sp is one of

the common mushrooms cultivated

throughout the North Bengal But in the

absence of scientific cultivation process,

project cultivators have standardized its

cultivation practices by using wide range of

locally available substrates which are being

widely adopted by the farmers of this zone

and training on post harvest processing has

also be given

Milky mushroom: The cultivation practices

of Calocybe indica have been introduced

through the project activities and farmers are slowly adopting the technology during summer months

management and vermicomposting)

Dissemination techniques for solid waste management was being imparted to interested persons of the command areas have been given training on preparation of vermicompost using the locally available agro-waste as well as using the by-product of mushroom cultivation (i.e spent mushroom substrate) Target farmers of the command area of the project have been given training

on seedling and crop production technology for getting more number of transplantable seedlings The training on soil solarisation (polythene mulching), use of insect nets (agro-shade nets), use of beneficial microbes through the organic matter (value addition), opting for containerized seedling production (protrays) and use of spent mushroom substrate for vermicomposting were conducted

Work component III (Aquaculture/fish culture)

Hands on training and demonstration programme on induced breeding of Asian Magur, Koi fish were conducted Training on induced breeding of Asian Magur, carp, cat fish and Ornamental fish and their disease management were provided to 737 farmers including 150 women The project activities were implemented through Farmers Clubs, Local level NGOs, Women Self- help Groups etc The concerned organisation was approached for capacity development on areas

of intervention and linking them to market channel

Results and Discussion

The interventions undertaken on solid waste

management, oyster mushroom cultivation

and fish culture were highly popular among

the rural communities and therefore, choice

based interventions were selected It has

created great impact among the farming

community The partnership with local NGOs

and KVKs has created strong bounding and

networking in the project implementation in

which more than 2000 people have been

trained in different interventions The details

of the trained beneficiaries have been

depicted in Fig 1 and 2 The target

community trained learns the technologies by

observing the demonstrations and then by

doing the same on their own

Around 50 entrepreneurs have been created

who have been able to establish their business

units The interventions on identification of

most profitable, sustainable and location

specific technologies were taken up for easy

reach of rural people, providing critical inputs

free of cost at the easy access, effective

functional linkage, marketing empowerment

and commodity based associations

In the project three interventions were

seriously carried out viz Mushroom

cultivation, solid waste management and fish

culture including value addition aspects

During the cultivation season mushrooms

were very highly productive However, due to

unavailability of technologies for proper

storing, drying and preparation of

post-harvest products and being perishable, there is

lot of wastage Spent mushroom substrate

remaining after a crop of mushrooms is highly

rich in organic matter making desirable for

use as a soil amendment or soil conditioner is

being used for water holding capacity, soil

pH, soil porosity, salt content i.e electrical

conductivity and other important properties

Addition of Spent Mushroom Substrate

(SMS) add great amount of macronutrient like nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium (NPK)

in the culture system The possibility of SMS

as carrier for control agents and bio-fertilizers was explored as an alternative outlet for SMS

Solid Waste Management and vermicomposting have been promoted for enhancement of farm inputs as organic concept through use of value addition in farming by addition of microorganisms such

as Trichoderma, rhizobacteria (phosphate

solubilizers and/or nitrogen fixers), arbuscular mycorrhiza (nutrient mobilizers) etc which can accelerate growth and productivity of crops in a completely organic manner This has been promoted as second intervention as solid waste management in farming for sustainable agriculture

Fish farming is very much appealing for North Bengal region High value fishes like

Catla, Rohu including prawn and air

breathing fishes are being promoted for having more fish productivity These interventions were provided to supplement protein rich food for malnourishment by popularizing fresh water fish culture in the backyard ponds of the beneficiaries

The detail cost benefit analysis of the interventions namely mushroom production its sale proceeds, cost benefit analysis of solid waste management/ vermicomposting and fish culture production are provided in the Tables 1, 2 and 3

The production of different mushrooms year-wise and district-year-wise has been presented in Figs 3 and 4

An NGO, Landesa having expertise with training of girl students in West Bengal was involved for imparting large training activities and the activities were linked with District

Rural Development Corporation and

NABARD for development of infrastructure

in rural community All the three different

components, mushroom, vermicomposting,

aquaculture was taken up Women Self Help

Groups and Farmers Club were involved In

the project, 3025 local entrepreneurs have

been created who have successfully adopted

mushroom cultivation, vermicomposting, fish

farming and product development through

value addition In the DBT RBC project

implemented by the University of

Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore during

2005-2010, the improvement of the income

and standard of living of the families engaged

from 75 villages of five panchayats in a

contiguous area in Karnataka benefitted

through cultivating traditional crops realising

60 percent of the potential yield The project

was successful in rainfed area and could help

in bringing significant changes in

productivity, income and employment

generation with considerable influence on standard of living The studies undertaken through implementation of RBC project at UAS created good impact through establishment of technology resource centre and farm based infrastructure with adoption

of various interventions of Agriculture, Horticulture, Farm-based technology with Animal Husbandry, Agro-processing and Value Addition (Narayana Gowda, 2009) DBT has conducted an impact assessment of Rural Bio-resource Complex through an agency Mott MacDonald, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, indicated that the beneficiaries practicing two crops in a year, and even more per year has shown good increase of profit with the intervention supported through trainings and demonstration activities and the entrepreneurs adopted interventions in integration started earning attractive income (Anon, 2010)

Table.1a Cost-benefit of different types of mushroom

(Rs.)

Rs/kg

Net profit in Rs/

Bag

Time period

Table.1b Cost-Benefit ratio of different edible mushrooms

Oyster mushroom (Rs.) Button mushroom (Rs.) Milky mushroom (Rs.)

Table.2 Average Sale price of different edible mushrooms in different times of year in North

Bengal

Item Production Cost (Rs.) Sale price/kg Net profit Time period C:B ratio

Bio-primed

seedlings

5000 nos 1500.00 1.00/seedling 3500.00 Quarterly 1:2.33

Table.3 Cost benefit analysis of aquaculture in rupees

Mature female and

male fish

@Rs 4 00 hatchling

25000 (egg) × 4 = 1,00,000.00 C:B Ratio: 1:2.33

per vial)

2000.00

Fish feed (artemia,

tubifex)

Fig.1 Total number of trainees trained in different components of the project

Fig.2 Year wise depiction of trainees trained in different components

Fig.3 Production of three different mushrooms during the period of 2012-2016

Fig.4 Comparison of mushroom production in different districts of North Bengal

In the project, the achievements were possible

with the contribution of six important factors

namely; identification of most profitable,

sustainable and location specific technologies,

timely and dependable information at the easy

reach of rural people, providing critical inputs

free of cost at the easy access, effective

functional linkage, marketing empowerment

and commodity based associations To

achieve this the demonstration and training

activities undertaken on mushroom

cultivation has covered 300 beneficiaries with

setting up of spawn production and

mushroom cultivation units and training of

2013 persons of which 432 nos are women in

Coochbehar, Malda, Jalpaigiuri, North and

South Dinajpur and Darjeeling districts 149

mushroom production units have been

established by the beneficiaries at

Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Malda

districts and 11 spawn production units were

developed at Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri,

Darjeeling and Malda

In solid waste management 946 persons were trained including 167 nos of women The trained people have set up commercial units

of vermicompost and 21 demonstrative trials have been conducted with the bio-agents supplied to Govt and NGOs for farming The

value addition of nitrogen fixers (Rhizobium, Azotobacter, Azospirillum, blue green algae);

plant growth promoting rhizobacteria

(Bacillus, Pseudomonas) and biocontrol agents (Trichoderma, arbuscular mycorrhizal

fungi) with vermicompost stimulated growth and development of plants

In aquaculture hands on training and demonstration programmes helped in induced breeding of Asian Magur, Koi fish Training

on induced breeding of Asian Magur, carp, cat fish and Ornamental fish and their disease management were provided to 737 farmers including 150 women The project activities were implemented through Farmers Clubs, Local level NGOs, Women Self-help Groups

etc The participating organisations

approached for market linkages after capacity

building in different interventions undertaken

In conclusion the project also encompasses

the development of small entrepreneurs in the

field of mushroom production, aquaculture

and vermicomposting as an alternative

strategy for maximizing rural revenue through

agricultural waste management The

assessment and proper utilization of natural

resources have benefitted the target farmers

with extra inputs for agriculture leading to

sustainable and profitable production

Bio-resource Centre has act as a single

window for the farmers providing them with

improved technologies for improvement of

their livelihood through trainings,

demonstration and products The target

population of the project (farmers, rural

women, unemployed youths etc.) from seven

districts of North Bengal under the

jurisdiction of UBKV and NBU was directly

involved in the demonstrations on the

intervening areas Upon receiving practical

experience from there, they started practicing

the same in their own farm lands at the same

time Constant monitoring of their

performance was done to encourage them and

suggestions to any problem were provided

The economy of the area hinges upon

agriculture and therefore crop based

agriculture is the only occupation of the

people in the area The advantages of

improved package of practices have not yet

reached to the target population This is due to

lack of approach on the part of various

agencies, demonstrating the usefulness and

feasibility of modern technologies to them

Another factor is the marginal nature of the

farm holds and poor economic status of the

people which do not allow them to venture

into the modern package of practices which

involved procurement of even small

implements and machineries needed for this The programme implemented on production

of mushroom generates income to the farm families during the lean seasons It has also provided cheap and protein rich vegetarian diet to the people and has been the very viable intervention for the marginal farmers who are landless The cultivation of quality fingerlings which are not locally available provides to generate income to the nursery owner as well

as the cultivators Expertise development on ornamental fish culture has explored good potential in this area and opened avenues for youth This has created a path for the local farmers to adopt fisheries also as an economic enterprise Establishing marketing linkages created to help farmers to realize profit, direct sale by producers Many farmers /Farm women/Farm youth were encouraged to undertake sale of produces by themselves particularly, vermicomposting, fish and mushroom

The programme implemented was evaluated through pre-and post-assessments of the technology introduced Beside this, the demand for bio-inoculants and mushroom master spawn has increased significantly during the four years During the project period, 9 commercial vermicompost units and

10 mushroom villages have been developed in this area Regarding production of fingerlings

by the farmers/ local entrepreneurs, atleast one unit has been developed in three districts The successful local entrepreneurs have been created through this programme with the rural bio-resource complex utilizing sustainable bio-resources from the region which were resource based for exploitation and exploration

Acknowledgement

The Authors are thankful to the Department

of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India for funding

the field based activities under the Rural

Bio-Resource Complex

References

Anon.2010 An impact Assessment of Rural

Bio-resource Complex, DBT

Assessment Report by Mott MacDonald,

Noida, Uttar Pradesh, pp 1-153

Kavitha,M S and Krishnaveni, K M 2016

Problems and prospects of organic food

market in India – An overview;

International Multidisciplinary Research

Journal; Indian Streams Research Journal; 6(7).p5

Narayana Gowda K 2009 Rebuilding the Confidence of Farmers- Experiences of

an Innovative Extension Project Indian Res J Ext Edu 9 (3), 6-8

Rajasekhar K, Daniel T and Karmegam M

2012 Microbial enrichment of vermicompost ISRN Soil Science, Volume 2012, Article ID 946079, pp13

http://dx.doi.org/10.5402/2012/946079

How to cite this article:

Chowdhury, A K., P M Bhattacharya, A Roy, S Bandyopadhayay, B N Chakraborty, Usha Chakraborty and Ninawe, A S 2020 Entrepreneurship Development through Rural Bio-Resource Complex with Adoption of Integrated Farming with Mushroom, Aquaculture, Organic Farming and Value Addition in North Bengal Region of West Bengal

Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci 9(11): 1797-1805 doi: https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2020.911.213